Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of February 20, 2014. Give me your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am. Remember, you can listen online at KFYO.com or on your iPhone/Android with the radioPup App.

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Cruz Slams Republicans

Senator Ted Cruz went after GOP leadership over their “show vote” yesterday according to CNN. Cruz is blaming Republicans for caving into President Obama on the debt ceiling.

Ted Cruz sharpened his critique against the Republican establishment in Washington, taking leaders in his party to task for allowing GOP senators to cast a “show vote” on the debt ceiling and misleading constituents.

In an exclusive network interview with CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash in Texas, the first-term Republican senator from Texas blamed Republicans for caving in to President Barack Obama and Democrats on raising the debt ceiling.

“Republican leadership said, we want this to pass, but if every senator affirmatively consents to doing it on 51 votes, then we can all cast a vote no and we can go home to our constituents and say we opposed it,” he said. “And listen, that sort of show vote, that sort of trickery to the constituents is why Congress has a 13 percent approval rating.”

Cruz added: “In my view, we need to be honest with our constituents. And last week, what it was all about was truth and transparency. I think all 45 Republicans should have stood together and said, of course not.’”

Cruz drew fire from fellow Republicans after he attempted to block the Senate from raising the debt ceiling earlier this month, forcing his GOP colleagues to choose between conservative purity and political pragmatism. The Senate voted 67-31 to break Cruz’s filibuster as a dozen Republicans crossed party lines to vote with the Democrats. The final vote to approve a year-long debt-ceiling extension went along party lines.

Cruz insisted his attempt to block the bill was not aimed at politically damaging his fellow Republicans, but rather it was an effort to make the lawmakers transparent to their constituents.

“I mean the funny thing is, what I told the voters of Texas, I guarantee you, all 45 of those Republican senators tell the voters of their states the same thing, which is they’re going to lead the fight to stop the spending, to stop the debt,” he said.

“And if 45 Republicans had stood together, nobody gets thrown under the bus.”

This probably won’t help his popularity inside the U.S. Senate among other Senator’s but it’s great to see a politician fight for what they believe in and what they campaigned on.

We need more public officials like Ted Cruz. Elected officials who stick to their guns and who aren’t afraid to stand up for what they believe in. Elected officials who understand that they work for us. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio all seem to get it. Many others do not.

Trusted Travelers

Plans to relax border security for so-called “trusted travelers” was announced yesterday at a summit marking the 20th anniversary of NAFTA according to Brietbart Texas.

The Guardian reports that a centerpiece of the summit will be the release of a communique announcing a new agreement to speed up the movement of executives and other regular travelers. This would be accomplished by the creation of a single continent-wide system of pre-screening for certain individuals.

The Guardian continues by explaining that any reform of U.S. border controls would dictate a need for increased communication between the three nations. These communication protocols would need to be closely scrutinized by Washington. Republican leaders have warned President Obama not to use executive orders to circumvent their positions on securing our nation’s borders.

“The amount of tension,” Longmire stated, “between these three countries at the North American Summit is considerable. Canada is upset with the U.S. for stalling on the Keystone XL pipeline, and Mexico is upset with the U.S. for failing to pass immigration reform.”

“Instead of using the time together,” Longmire continued, “to hash out some of these tough issues, Obama, Peña Nieto, and Harper have chosen to focus on window dressing like a joint defense agreement between Mexico and Canada, and another commercial travel program between the U.S. and Mexico.”

The Mexican Minister of Foreign affairs acknowledged, “There are several national trusted traveler programs already in place like Nexus, Global Entry, Sentry, and in the case of Mexico, Viajero Confiable.”

“In order to blend these together into one North American system,” Longmire concluded, “the three countries are going to have to play nice and share an unprecedented level of information; something Mexico has been more unwilling to do with the U.S. since Peña Nieto was elected.

The question then becomes, can “trusted travelers” be trusted? Breitbart Texas revealed today, the indictment of a former Mexican state treasury secretary on charges of money laundering and bribery related to drug trafficking. Further, in December 2013, Breitbart News’ Brandon Darby reported about a former Mexican governor of Tamaulipas being indicted on charges related to helping the Mexican Gulf Cartel smuggle narcotics into the U.S.

These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show. Tune in mornings 8:30-11am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.

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